Light scattering is the most powerful tool for characterizing the size, shape, interactions and function of nanoparticles. Organized by Wyatt Technology Corp. (Santa Barbara, Calif.), the 24th International Light Scattering Colloquium (ILSC), to be held November 3–4, 2015, will provide a forum in which scientists involved in the function and application of nanoparticles for chemistry and medicine can discuss the technology and applications of light scattering.
In advance of the colloquium, editor emeritus Bob Stevenson and Philip Wyatt, CEO of Wyatt Technology Corp., discussed meeting highlights.
RLS: Can you give a short history of the series and its objectives?
PW: Initially, the meeting was a forum for the leading technologists in light scattering to convene and talk shop. Their primary focus was the field of polymer chemistry led by Bruno Zimm, an early member of Wyatt’s scientific advisory board. The meeting series contributed to the development of the technology, especially during the 1980s. As the technology matured, interest in the nuts and bolts of light scattering dropped off, while reports of its utilization for a plethora of research projects beyond polymer chemistry grew exponentially. After some 25 years, most of the lectures in the colloquium report interesting and novel applications of light scattering that include the realms of structural biology, biochemistry, biopharmaceuticals, both synthetic and natural polymers and, of course, nanoparticles of all types.
RLS: What will your opening lecture, “Measurement of Special Nanoparticle Structures by Light Scattering,” center on?
PW: The focus of the 2015 ILSC is Light Scattering in the Nano World. Nanoparticle structures from metallic and liposome spheres to ellipsoids to hollow rods and tubes are finding application in a variety of fields. They are intended for use in a broad range of applications, e.g., including custom drug delivery, killing cancerous cells and even reinforcing important macrostructures. The deduction of such particles’ sizes from the measured light scattering signatures are available for simple structures; in this meeting, the focus will be on the measurement of more complex structures and some new techniques to achieve such information. I also plan to review some of the related technologies and applications gleaned from nearly 11,000 scientific publications citing Wyatt instruments and software.
RLS: What do you expect from the lecture by Professor Frank von der Kammer, Ph.D., of the University of Vienna?
PW: Frank is a prolific investigator and an early adopter of nanoparticle characterization using field-flow fractionation (FFF) combined with multiangle light scattering (MALS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). His group has become one of the world’s leading research units working on the impact of nanoparticles in the environment and, most interestingly, in the food chain. Recently he published on validated sizing methods in food and cosmetics.
I believe that light scattering continues to be of great value in food science. For example, as Frank has reminded us, soups are really complex mixtures containing emulsions and nanoparticles that contribute to both flavor and texture. Such ingredients are readily amenable to characterization by light scattering. Recently, FFF-MALS has been used to analyze the proteins and polysaccharides that contribute to foaming and palatability of different types of beer. I expect that the audience will leave with a new appreciation of these technologies, not just for esoteric research but for products that affect our daily lives.
RLS: What is the subject of the lecture from Vince Hackley, Ph.D. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST)?
PW: An important responsibility of NIST (as specified in the U.S. Constitution) is to provide standards of measurement and the reference materials needed to quantitate diverse research methods. Such materials are needed to ensure that scientists have common references for measurement. Although a variety of methods are available to characterize and measure reference nanomaterials, Vince has shown that FFF coupled to light scattering is an invaluable technique for providing the data necessary to confirm the reliability of various NIST standards. While other techniques use relative calibration, MALS provides an absolute measure of size by coupling MALS to FFF. This provides highly accurate and robust size distributions suitable for reliable characterization of reference nanoparticles. In addition, the combination of MALS and DLS often permits measurement of more complex anisotropic structures often seen in nanoparticles and crystalline polymers.
I’d also like to call attention to the talk by Professor Paul Russo of Georgia Tech (Atlanta) on measuring and characterizing anisotropic polymers and colloids with light scattering. I think that we will see that there is quite a lot of surprising and interesting results to be found in the details of the data Paul will present.
RLS: Light Scattering in Life Sciences, Chemistry and Biotechnology is also a major focus. Can you give an overview?
PW: From my catbird seat, I marvel at the tremendous variety of applications [that] light scattering has found in these disciplines. For example, Professor Erica Ollmann-Saphire of The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, Calif.) and co-director of the Global Virus Network Center of Excellence will describe how light scattering and other biophysical tools play into the molecular-level study of virus structure–function. We’re very proud that our technology has proven so useful in so many research labs, labs like Erica’s, in work leading to biotherapeutic and nanomedicine innovations.
Similarly, I expect that David Cistola, M.D./Ph.D., vice president for research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (Fort Worth), will tantalize us with his work on characterizing particles in human blood. He has performed some fascinating studies on the correlations between lipoprotein particle size and composition and cardiovascular health.
While protein-based therapeutics can provide amazing benefits to patients suffering from many debilitating diseases, proteins can be quite fragile. It is all too easy to perturb their structure and lose efficacy or vital function. Dr. Joseph Arndt, senior scientist at Biogen (Cambridge, Mass.), will describe how light scattering and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are utilized in the biopharmaceutical industry in work that aims to preserve the structure and, hence, the efficacy of proteins during the manufacturing process.
On a related topic, I’m eager to hear Professor Brian Shoichet of UCSF’s (University of California, San Francisco) Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry lecture on colloidal aggregation in drug discovery and pharmacology. Brian has been a leader in exploring the impact of aggregation on the interactions of small-molecule drugs with target proteins and other physiological entities. His work has covered false positives produced by aggregates, reduced efficacy and bioavailability of aggregated drugs and the controlled release of drugs from nano-hydrogels.
Dr. Joseph Glajch, director of Analytical Development at Momenta Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, Mass.), is a regular at ILSC. It will be a pleasure to have him speak to the 2015 audience. He will report on the use of SEC-MALS for the characterization of complex drugs and sugar–protein complexes that are important in immunology.
There will be other reports in the poster session, which is always a great venue for one-on-one discussions. As usual, participants will have an opportunity to learn about the latest advances in light-scattering instrumentation and analytical software. In addition, we’ll be livening things up this year with some energetic roundtable discussions.
The ILSC 2015 meeting will offer two satellite events: a day of light-scattering short courses and a focus meeting. The short courses are a great opportunity for those unfamiliar with light scattering to prepare for the main event, or for experienced practitioners to brush up on or to learn about techniques to which they have not yet been exposed. The focus meeting will be devoted to method development for light-scattering applications in the formulation of biotherapeutics and is highly recommended for anyone involved in that field. Details are available at www.wyatt.com/events/ILSC.
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D., is editor emeritus, American Laboratory/Labcompare; e-mail: [email protected]